Operation Stoneferry - British SF Ops Overseas Before The Great Panic
by jimmygreen2002
Summary: Before the great panic, British Special Forces troops deployed overseas like those American A-Teams fighting the Undead.


**STONEFERRY – 1**

British military operations overseas during the early stages of the Zombie War before the Great Panic were code-named STONEFERRY by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The computers at the MOD Main Building in Whitehall chose this name at random and it had no bearing at all on the combat operations which would commence abroad before everything started to fall apart. STONEFERRY was entirely separate to efforts by the Government and the intelligence services to attempt to deal with the threat to the country's security; perhaps that was why it was ultimately a failure.

Elite soldiers from the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) took part in STONEFERRY, including many reservists recalled to active service. These men came from military units where operational secrecy was practised on an everyday basis and they all had a security clearance. Those units were all part of the UKSF command structure and the men which would see combat as part of the operations conducted outside Britain came from those. 22 SAS (the regular element of the Special Air Service), 21 SAS & 23 SAS (the Army Reserve formations of the SAS), the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, the Special Forces Support Group, the Special Boat Service (naval commandoes with the Royal Navy), helicopters crews & support personnel with the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing, combat signalmen with the 18 Signal Regiment and specialist personnel with the 15 Psychological Operations Group. These soldiers were joined too by intelligence officers on the ground from the Secret Intelligence Service – better known as MI-6 – as well as having much external support in the form of air and naval assets from regular military units assigned to STONEFERRY operations while being unaware of what their operational tasking involved.

STONEFERRY came about due to the commitment of the upper echelons of HM's Government in Whitehall to fully cooperate with the efforts of the US Government in Washington in their own version of the overseas deployment of their special forces troops – their 'A-Teams' –, which the Americans were calling MIDNIGHT TALON. Theirs was a much bigger deployment than the one conducted by Britain involving more men, a wider range of operational theatres and much greater external support.

The two countries set about attempting to 'contain' the threat to the national security of their countries coming from the Undead spread across parts of Africa, Asia and South America. Covert military operations were to be conducted by those assigned to STONEFERRY and MIDNIGHT TALON to kill and remove traces of the Undead as they advanced throughout regions of the Third World. In some instances there was the support of the rulers of the nations where these special forces troops were sent to combat their new enemy but that was the exception rather than the rule especially in the case of the Americans: Britain didn't do things that way at first with their STONEFERRY operations.

The Undead.

That was the name assigned by the British intelligence services to the cannibals displaying Zombie characteristics that had first come from China before slowly but surely spreading throughout other parts of the world. There was at first only a trickle of information then later a tsunami of knowledge about what they were, how they acted and how to combat them. Unfortunately, many of the so-called facts weren't facts at all. There were rumours, exaggerations and sometimes outright lies when it came to the Undead. In addition there was a disbelief, even when presented with evidence, among so many people that such a thing was possible: _the dead were walking and attacking the living?_ Combined with a level of secrecy that was sometimes suffocating too when it came to the Undead all combined to make it very difficult for STONEFERRY to ever be a success like it was hoped it would be.

Those British soldiers – as well as the few professional spooks who initially accompanied them abroad – were briefed on the threat that they faced from the Undead before they were deployed. They were told what they needed to know by others judging what should be revealed to them and who also tried their best to separate fact from fiction; those judgement calls were very difficult to make. That early in the conflict against the Undead there was no planned sacrifice of expendable lives for the greater good as would be done later by countries across the world. The mistakes made were just that: they were errors not deception efforts.

As with the American commandoes that formed their A-Teams, the UKSF soldiers were told all about the Undead. It was explained how they could be killed, what were the suspected methods of transmission of the then-unidentified disease which created them and how they operated in their utter mindless bloodlust. Some soldiers laughed, others were truly frightened. This was a whole new kind of enemy that wouldn't under any circumstances operate like any previously-encountered opponent on the battlefield. The Undead didn't need to rest, they needed no resupply or command & control, they didn't put to use traditional tactics of concealment or distraction and every previous effort to stop them had failed. They would be aided by the living who didn't understand them who were acting desperately to save them in the belief that there was hope for their infected relatives even after they had become the Undead. There would be men, women and children that made up the ranks of the Undead opponents that the UKSF would be combatting. They had no fear and no sense of self-preservation. No defences had been yet known to hold in either manmade or natural form. At all times their numbers were growing without any sort of pause.

STONEFERRY orders called for these British elite troops being sent against them to combat such a threat as this… after what had occurred in Cape Town.

 **STONEFERRY – 2**

The first STONEFERRY deployment was to Botswana in southern Africa. Initially, three of the UKSF commando teams along with external supporting assets were assigned yet very quickly the strength of the deployment was at first doubled and then more than tripled with ten groups of commandoes tasked to fly to the Commonwealth nation which bordered the bloodbath which South Africa was fast turning in to.

With the Special Air Service – regular and reserve elements – forming the bulk of the manpower, much of the doctrine of the SAS was infused upon the make-up of those British commando teams and how they at first operated. The other military formations committing men to the STONEFERRY mission all worked closed with the SAS on a usual basis and there was little fuss over doing things the way which the SAS wanted. Therefore, those commando teams sent into Botswana were armed with what was SAS standard equipment, structured along SAS lines (with sixteen man platoon-level Troop's) and set about doing things as the SAS would do. Secrecy was key with the initial arrival of British forces taking place at night and tight cooperation with the small Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in allowing the special forces groups to transit to the border with South Africa under tight security without observation. Afterwards, as per standard SAS operational procedure, over-watch positions near the border were carefully located and then set up. The soon rapid reinforcement, even before the first trio of teams were in-place, came about due to the situation on the ground which quickly escalated.

Botswana was only weeks away from extermination as a nation when the first of the UKSF teams arrived. No one in the small country could have anticipated what was about to happen: the worst fears of the government in the capital Gaborone were nothing in comparison as to what was quickly to occur. The Undead were regarded as a major threat to the national security of Botswana yet they were still underestimated. What had happened in Cape Town, very far away on the other side of South Africa, was misunderstood but more so was just how fast the Undead would spread through the densely-populated country just to the south of little Botswana. It wasn't foreseen that millions of South Africans would attempt to flee towards Botswana and neighbouring countries; neither that millions of the Undead would follow them, especially as fast as they did. Moreover, with the Undead being such an unknown phenomenon, it wasn't thought that they would be moving with those refugees _by_ many of those millions fleeing northwards in the form of underlying infections and also the desire to find a miracle cure somewhere outside of South Africa.

One in ten of the country's population lived in Gaborone with almost another ten per cent nearby too. The city sat just back from the border with South Africa and less than a hundred miles from Johannesburg. To the west of the capital lay the expense of the Kalahari Desert all the way across the Namibia and it was through transportation routes around Gaborone and nearby in the southeast rather in the southwest geographically nearer to Cape Town that the Undead first started to arrive in Botswana.

It wasn't a mega-horde of the Undead which brought down Botswana and who the STONEFERRY assigned commando teams engaged first. The main body of those infected with the then-unidentified Solanum virus from Cape Town were still very far away in Cape Province and wandering aimlessly through there. Instead, it was individual carriers who had been bitten or scratched by the Undead and a few cases of those bound, gagged and hidden in modes of transport being moved by relatives which started to enter Botswana just as they did Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland too. Cars, trucks, buses and light aircraft brought them towards Botswana rather than on foot as they would later become better known for moving by. There were so many of them all heading towards the general Gaborone area with those travelling with them generally unawares and those ahead equally without a clue as to this first wave of the Undead.

Intelligence from RAF unmanned air vehicles (drones to the layman), human intelligence sources inside South Africa reporting to British Intelligence and even the efforts of military reconnaissance satellites with both visual & electronic eavesdropping capabilities gave some idea to the STONEFERRY command centre which remained behind in the UK concerning the spread of the Undead throughout South Africa just before they started to arrive in Botswana. They spread fast from Cape Town throughout Cape Province and then also along the southern shoreline of the country too up as far as Durban within days – in this latter instance transported by boats. Refugees from Cape Town spread out far and wide carrying Solanum across the country. When the Undead arrived in Kimberly and Bloemfontein in the Free State six days later causing small outbreaks there, STONEFERRY was only just getting started… three days after that the Undead made appearances in Soweto (where an all-encompassing firestorm would later breakout) followed a day later in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Watching the spread of the Undead was extremely disturbing for the UK Government. This was done through the media at first before journalists either died in or fled from South Africa as Britain moved to hide coverage too from the population at home. Yet it was from those assets supporting STONEFERRY – the unmanned air vehicles flying above South Africa, those spooks on the ground and what satellites were showing – that the majority of the observation was done from. The whole country was fast falling apart and by that stage Britain had given a commitment to Botswana, a fellow Commonwealth nation, to help out as best as possible in dealing with the effects of what was occurring inside the territory of its neighbour. Of course, as can be expected, it was believed to be in the best interests of the UK to try to combat the Undead as far away from the British Isles as possible: a major factor in the decision to send those men out to southern Africa.

Trying to understand what was going on down in South Africa as the Undead moved in the general direction of Botswana was difficult for Britain though. The intelligence previously gained of smaller outbreaks elsewhere – in Central Asia in particular but also in parts of Indochina, across the Himalayas and in Brazil – as well as the false information from China muddled the waters. A lot of what was known wasn't concrete fact; those briefings given on what the British commando teams would be facing when engaging the Undead was full of truth but it wasn't put across to them exactly the circumstances which they would encounter when fighting. They didn't know about incubation periods, the resistance to the elements which the Undead had nor the method of communication which the Undead had through their later infamous moans.

However, that would all come soon enough…

STONEFERRY command at PJHQ Northwood – the MOD operational command bunker beneath Hertfordshire north of London – gave orders to the rear-area tactical headquarters on the ground in Botswana based outside the town of Molepolole at a BDF base there before those instructions were passed on to forward deployed elements. This set up was a prerequisite of the mission planners so that effective command-and-control was at the local level and not direct from back home to the commando teams out in the field. Molepolole was the main rear-area base for the deployment in Botswana though there were two further, smaller facilities too for support of the mission here and these were again north of Gaborone and deeper inside Botswana.

Of the ten commando teams sent to Botswana, six of them were sent direct into the field near the border with South Africa in the wider Gaborone area. Two more remained at the Molepolole base as a reaction force, one was observing Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and the final team was based at the British Embassy in Gaborone. They were all extremely well-armed and supplied with a wide range of surveillance and communications equipment. Air support was available to them which was planned for emergency medical evacuation as well as supply drops.

Those men near the border were hiding from plain side watching the main roads coming across from South Africa. They had bellied-up and hid their presence from everyone who might want to look. The higher levels of the BDF knew about them and of course the Botswana government, but of course no one else was meant to know. Before their very first encounters with the Undead there was actually more of a fear of 'friendly fire' engagements rather than the apparent Zombies tearing the country just across the border apart: there were BDF soldiers manning the border crossings ready to turn back refugees and whom were unaware of those men positioned to watch their activities.

Twelve days after the beginnings of the Cape Town outbreak and three days after fully deploying within Botswana, those British commandoes on the STONEFERRY mission first saw their enemy.

 **STONEFERRY – 3**

The deployment to the border with South Africa of large elements of the BDF came at the order of the President. He was aware of some of the intelligence which Britain had access to but also genuinely concerned too as to what his own sources of information were telling him as well. The situation in South Africa had fast spiralled out of control with the Undead seemingly showing up everywhere as quick as they did. Despite reassurances from London, the President sent his soldiers to the border crossings to back up the civilian police elements already in-place. The mission was to turn back an expected tide of refugees attempting to flee into Botswana yet the rules of engagement (ROE) issued to the soldiers were rather confusing for many of those soldiers to follow once they started to encounter the mass of frightened civilians heading their way.

Vehicle after vehicle came along the main highways which ran west from the immense Johannesburg-Pretoria-Soweto urban area towards Botswana. These traversed National Route 4 (NR4) through the quasi-state Royal Bafokeng Nation – passing through Rustenburg, known to many in the UK after the 2010 World Cup – as well as along NR14 and then Route 503 which ran past the town of Lichtenburg. Middle-class South Africans fleeing from the unknown were in the vehicles spotted by British air reconnaissance assets supporting the STONEFERRY mission and there were thousands of them racing towards Botswana in the direction of the border crossings southwest of Gaborone. There was chaos on the roads with crashes and disturbances which were suspected to be down to the activities of the Undead, though that wasn't something confirmed.

Botswana planned to turn these refugees back though in the haste that the President and his government made this decision, they didn't think about the actual implications of something like that.

Those highways coming towards Botswana were being watched by the UKSF commando teams. They had tactical surveillance equipment with them along with their weapons and watched as chaos unfolded when the BDF stopped vehicles and tried to turn them back around. Botswana was a democratic country with rule of law and that was represented in its armed forces. Firm but polite instructions were given to the refugees that they needed to go back home. This wasn't something that those frightened South Africans were about to do though. Traffic jams formed and people started abandoning their cars in their desperation. Many hadn't even had any direct contact with the Undead who they were running from yet they knew that their best course of action was to get far away from such… people.

The British soldiers observed the BDF and the border guards lose control of the situation. There was no control over the refugees as they started to move away from the paved roads and walking. Some went into Botswana directly while others attempted to take a more roundabout route though in the latter case not with much success. Then there was the 'fighting' which started to occur among a select few groups of refugees along with very unusual behaviour exhibited by others.

The Undead were witnessed in action.

There weren't that many at first, just a scattered few. They were observed climbing out of vehicles and then starting to attack people. The British troops watched through binoculars and sights attached to a selection of long-range weapons as this occurred. It was like a bad horror movie for them. They had been told about the Undead and how these people who had died were up and walking around again in shuffling manner ready to grab and bite the living… but it was still something capable of causing immense shock to those who observed it.

Pandemonium commenced at the border crossings.

Some people stood around watching with interest, even taking their mobile phones out to presumably shoot video footage or take pictures; others stood still in an apparent state of shock. Most of the refugees in the vicinity of the Undead moved as fast as possible and ran in all sorts of directions. BDF soldiers and Botswana border guards closed in upon the activity with confusion. They fired warning shots into the air and in some cases launched tear gas grenades to try to disperse crowds. Shouts were made towards some of the Undead for them to stop & halt and when that didn't work a few carefully aimed shots were taken at them. Those Undead who were shot sometimes fell to the ground before getting back up again but most didn't go down. They were shot in the torso or in the limbs; headshots were very rare and when they did occur these were generally ineffective as no one on the ground was aware that the brain needed to be destroyed to stop the Undead.

Those victims of the Undead were sometimes torn apart and eaten. Those British soldiers in over-watch positions watched with horror when this occurred. They had been briefed that the Undead would do this yet again acted with surprise when seeing such a thing. It had been believed that they would just be chasing and biting the living, as happened as well, but the tearing apart of living human beings to be consumed in a bloodlust was truly horrific to witness. Long-range direction microphones were also being used by the UKSF commando teams and they were able to listen in a few instances to horrible screams which those who heard them would never forget.

The nightmare scenarios which were witnessed at the two big border crossings grew in scale as the Undead spread out in search of more food. There were refugees fleeing in all directions who had survived the attacks and many of those were now carrying the infection with them after being bitten or scratched. Moreover, some of those which had been attacked by the Undead were BDF soldiers too. Those not torn apart to be eaten but with other wounds were 'rescued' by their comrades as the Botswana soldiers tried their best to conduct withdrawals back deeper into their country. They could move faster than the Undead and were well-armed with weapons which while weren't putting the Undead down for good in most cases were still doing a lot of damage by knocking limbs out of action.

Reporting back on what had taken place to STONEFERRY forward operational command at Molepolole, the British commandoes forward requested orders. They had maintained their hidden presence while the attacks from the Undead were happening and also as the BDF fell back. All around them uninfected refugees as well as many who were now in the early stages of infection with Solanum were on the move while the Undead too were wandering about. To stay still in their hides wasn't an option for the commando teams and as well as asking for permission to move, there were calls for permission to open fire from the three teams near those border crossings where the Undead had struck.

The ROE which the BDF had had hampered them and allowed many of them to be killed while the remainder fled in disarray, but the UKSF had a different set of engagement rules issued to them. There were to be no warning shots fired and headshots with 'special' ammunition were ordered to take place within the first instance. Once word came that they were allowed to open fire as well as to redeploy to pre-scouted fall-back positions, the SAS and the other special forces personnel which had joined their Troop's did their worst.

Sniper rifles were the weapon of choice with long distance shots taken from specialist L115A3 rifles firing versions of the .338 Lapua Magnum bullet at distances between six hundred and thirteen hundred yards. The bullets themselves were hallow-point rounds – better known to the public as 'dum-dum' rounds – that expanded upon impact with a hard target: especially the skull of the Undead which they were fired against. These bullets had been taken from storage in an emergency measure and issued to the men on the first STONEFERRY deployment ahead of a legal argument over whether or not they should be used. There were international treaties banning the use of such bullets in conventional warfare though not in domestic law enforcement circumstances, hence why they had been manufactured and stored for potential UKSF use on a possible national security role. There had been a debate over whether they could legally be used in support of STONEFERRY due to the deployment abroad in Botswana, but that was all irrelevant others had argued as they were to be used against the Undead rather than a conventional military opponent. Furthermore, though unused in Botswana, further STONEFERRY deployments would see explosive-tipped bullets put to use as well again with debates beforehand over the legality of such a course of action… such arguments were typical before the Great Panic and far from exclusive just to Britain.

The UKSF snipers were very good at their role. Half of the members of the deployed mixed Troop's were carrying these long rifles and they conducted their firing carefully and with much professionalism. The Undead fell down and wouldn't be getting back up again once those hallow-point bullets expanded upon impact with their skulls causing massive trauma. The shots came from above and in concealment and the Undead, even if they had mind to trying to figure out what was happening and evade, stood no chance. There were men, women and children targeted by the sniper fire. It was especially hard for the British commandoes to do this as these were civilians who appeared very much alive walking around as they did, but the firm orders which they received and their own training allowed them to obey those firm instructions to kill and kill again.

All of the Undead weren't hit with these shots from distance though: some escaped and then, of course, there were the civilians and BDF soldiers infected. The commando teams were pulling back and also had a couple of engagements with the Undead using their other weapons as well with their M-16 assault rifles and L119A1 carbines (Canadian C8 versions of the US M-4) seeing use. There was no expanding ammunition used with these rifles as while such rounds were stored in the UK they had yet to arrive in Botswana for the STONEFERRY mission. These later, desperate struggles up close and personal were hard work but the British commandoes won such engagements by aiming carefully with multiple head shots.

What happened along a certain stretch of the Botswana – South Africa border was just the start though. There were other road routes into Botswana (the train service had been halted) and then there were also many small little airstrips on both sides of the border too. The British commandoes were lucky enough to come away from the very first engagements just about unscathed, but their luck wasn't going to last.

Botswana didn't have much of an immediate future either.

 **STONEFERRY – 4**

There were other road routes into Botswana from South Africa that the UKSF soldiers were watching yet saw no initial activity as far as the Undead were concerned on that first day. Out to the west near Bokspits, much closer to Cape Town, and far to the east where the South African N11 highway crossed over, there were another trio of special forces teams on STONEFERRY assignment. They provided over-watch as the BDF again turned back traffic containing South African refugees and observed as disturbances took place. There were no cannibals present but fighting still occurred as Botswana's border guards and soldiers tried to keep those potentially infected out of their country.

Some slipped past all of the security though at these points and there were of course others ways for refugees to leave South Africa too.

Botswana didn't have a national air defence network and there were no assigned British radar assets deployed in country either in the form of mobile antenna or RAF airborne radar aircraft. The threat to Botswana was regarded as coming from the Undead travelling on foot or maybe trapped/secured inside vehicles; aircraft were thought to be out of the question as a way that they could move over a distance without a lot of people taking notice and putting a stop to that… these were the days long before the Paris outbreak. Regardless, there still was a British commando team at the international airport near Gaborone just in case.

Other, small airstrips across Botswana were left uncovered by the British and the Botswana authorities though. It could be argued that had a decision been made to share the knowledge of the Undead further throughout Botswana, what happened next could have been avoided yet the secrecy which governments in the know worldwide were practising was still all-prevalent and maybe there would just have been a repeat of those incidents at the border crossings where the Undead had already appeared.

Many light aircraft flew across South Africa from one part of the country to another and also across the borders into neighbouring countries, including Botswana. There were propeller-driven and jet aircraft in the skies with microlights, general purpose and corporate transports put to use. Some were flown legally by their owners or operators while others had been stolen, even hijacked in some cases. The number of people aboard these aircraft varied from one up to thirty plus. Individuals and families took these flights with many refugees paying extortionate fees to be flown away from danger while there were also acts of compassion in other cases where people were rescued. South Africa was seeing outbreaks of the Undead occurring far and wide but while the country wasn't soon to fall many were acting like it was. Air transport seemed a fast and safe way of getting far away and like the vast majority of those in their cars the refugees aboard aircraft had rarely had any direct contact yet with the Undead… there were always a few though.

Without a watch being kept on the skies, aircraft started touching down all across Botswana with people leaving South Africa; there were a few refugees infected with Solanum among these and, even worst, a tiny number of the Undead as well. The desperation on the part of some people to bound and gag their 'ill' relatives and take them away from the 'danger' which they faced from those looking to kill mother, fathers and children was something that hadn't been yet fully understood by the planners of STONEFERRY nor anyone else in southern Africa yet. Generally successful efforts were made with these select few Undead to keep them secure but a couple were always going to get loose.

They were now deep inside Botswana – as well as other countries neighbouring South Africa – and far away from the border which was being watched.

A great distance away from the frontlines in Botswana where British special forces had gone into action, those first contact reports were received back in London. News of the engagements with the Undead had been filtered through the tactical headquarters on the ground in Molepolole for briefing purposes though those at PJHQ Northwood had access to raw intelligence too.

Major-General James Price served as Director, Special Forces and thus was Britain's most senior military officer in charge of all military special forces from their operations to administration to training. This was far from a staff position and was instead a true combat command role for General Price. He had wanted to go to Botswana with his men when they first started to deploy as was his style due to the STONEFERRY deployment there being such a major overseas operation. However, orders had come for him to remain behind in Britain while UKSF soldiers went to southern Africa.

From Northwood, General Price was able to understand what his soldiers on deployment had been facing during the day watching the border with South Africa. There were those reports of the teams involved and then footage from a couple of Reaper drones which were supporting them with tactical reconnaissance. The actions of the Undead were of great significance but so too was what else was happening with how the Botswana border guards and the BDF soldiers supporting them had failed to stop refugees crossing that border. He had never been as optimistic as some of the more senior defence chiefs above him and certain politicians had been about the planned success of that blocking mission to try to enforce some sort of quarantine yet for the rapid failure of that effort to occur as it had was of great alarm not only to him but to others as well.

Where the UKSF had fought directly against the Undead encountered, General Price also paid much attention. Botswana was only meant to be the beginning of STONEFERRY as other deployments were planned alongside the Americans with their MIDNIGHT TALON operations and so the instances of combat were of vital importance. The use of expanding ammunition for the British commandoes roles as snipers, which he had pushed for himself over certain objections from others too welded to noble ideas rather than the practical implications of warfare, had been shown to be of much significance. It was apparent that had such ammunition not been released for use, there would have been many casualties suffered by his men out in the field. What he wanted now was the release of explosive-tipped bullets too though that would still be a major problem with objections again on moral grounds certain to be forthcoming.

In those engagements, General Price's men had done exceptionally well. They had acted with great professionalism and followed their orders. There had been a fear that maybe faced with the Undead, something so new and unknown, the UKSF soldiers out in Botswana wouldn't be able to do as planned but that had been unwarranted. General Price knew little of the BDF yet the armed forces of Botswana were meant to be professional too. Those men had folded when faced with the Undead though as they really hadn't been mentally prepared or suitably equipped to do so: that hadn't occurred with the men deployed from Britain with STONEFERRY.

The intention with the mission had never been for the British special forces to hold the border line; General Price had managed to convince his superiors and the politicians in Whitehall that that would be impossible. The numbers of men deployed, the long border over difficult terrain and the anticipated behaviour of the Undead had all been factored into that. The mission orders were for that initial over-watch stage to allow for some fast experience to be gained and tactical reconnaissance to be done before moving to the second stage where the UKSF men were to hunt down and 'contain' outbreaks expected to occur in Botswana. The Undead didn't have superhuman strength nor could they move fast and they were interesting in feeding on the living at the first opportunity rather than taking ground like a traditional foe: they could be located and attacked when in-place from a distance. Things had progressed fast on the ground with a quick entrance made into Botswana by the Undead but the plan was for them now to be engaged after they had.

General Price was confident that his men down in southern Africa could do this effectively there and then later when the idea was to send other special forces teams elsewhere in the world though he, like everyone else, wasn't aware of how far into Botswana the Undead had reached and how quickly the Solanum virus could spread in the manner which it would.

 **STONEFERRY – 5**

The majority of the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing had left the UK and gone to Botswana with the UKSF troops which they were usually assigned to support. The helicopters flown by the RAF and the AAC (Army Air Corps) along with a contingent of ground support personnel had been air-lifted all the way to southern Africa to assist the deployment there in a major logistical effort. The great distance over which the aviation element had moved to support STONEFERRY was considered worth it for the planned role in which the heavy transport Chinook's, assault transport Dauphin's and reconnaissance & light transport Gazelle's were to play in the second stage of the deployment.

The helicopters were flying from Molepolole as their base of operations. The BDF military facility there was well-protected by British troops on the STONEFERRY deployment and was used for refuelling, rearmament and maintenance support. In conducting their flight operations from there those helicopters started to move UKSF troops around parts of Botswana as those commandoes started to react to the presence inside the country of the Undead.

Very quickly and defying all predictions on their speed of movement, the Undead struck across Botswana. Their presence was first felt south of Gaborone and near the border crossings through which they had entered the country yet soon afterwards they started to attack the living at several military bases to where BDF casualties had been evacuated. Furthermore, there were soon incidents of the Undead appearing much deeper inside the country and the connection was made that they must have entered through isolated airstrips. The military forces of Botswana tried to concentrate on keeping their capital free of the Undead while the British troops in country were flown around and into combat elsewhere.

Mission orders for the UKSF on deployment were for them to quickly arrive in areas where the Undead were reported and to fast go into action. They were to unleash their considerable fire-power against the Undead to finish them off for good while also assisting the BDF in trying to secure those infected with the Solanum virus from further movement. While an excellent operational concept, the situation on the ground didn't allow this to work like its planners wanted it too. Knowledge of the Solanum virus wasn't something that had been disseminated enough, there were the human factors involved and there weren't enough British troops in country.

What the infection was and how it was spread wasn't something that enough key people involved in Botswana had an understanding of. The uncontrollable desire on the part of the Undead to attack people and consume human flesh was one thing that could be dealt with once the initial shock was out of the way but the act of stopping injured civilians from fleeing the attacks from those acting like drug-crazed cannibals wasn't done as human nature was to try and help those hurt as well as to save others from being pounced upon. Civilians inside the country didn't want to follow orders from the government to stay in their homes and secure them when the threat came from the Undead; instead they tried to run as far away as possible without regard to the implications. Those in positions of authority tried to help those in fear of their lives too despite word coming down from above to them to not do so. Rumours and false assumptions about the Undead were rife with people believing that they could be reasoned with, cured or even were no real danger. To try to make people understand that their close relatives were actually dead and extremely dangerous when they were up and walking around was just too much for most to understand.

Those ten elite commando teams of more than a dozen UKSF soldiers each consisted mainly of SAS men though there were Special Boat Service and Special Reconnaissance Regiment personnel among their ranks too so as to make up the numbers. Also in Botswana were Para's serving in the Special Forces Support Group who were meant to provide support to them while not going out on direct operational missions to hunt down and kill the Undead. Even with all of these special forces soldiers, plus the support personnel also in Botswana, there weren't enough men to deal with the Undead as they spread throughout the country over the next few days. Botswana was a large country and the Undead had entered in their present form through one region but those infected with the Solanum virus had then appeared elsewhere before 'transforming' as they did into more of the ranks of the Undead. The tactical headquarters for STONEFERRY at Molepolole was soon overwhelmed with reports of outbreaks occurring far and wide which they needed to send men to go into action against.

In those missions which were taking place, the UKSF were still achieving great success when they made contact with the Undead. Their opponents operated without any sense of a traditional military foe and were easy to kill when engaged as they were by well-trained troops like the British commandoes in Botswana. The special forces soldiers sought out concealment, killed from a distance and packed a powerful punch with the weapons they carried. They had learnt to use their assault rifles like they did their sniper rifles in taking their time and taking well-placed head-shots. Hand grenades, anti-personnel mines and other such methods which would usually defend against an opponent didn't do any good; powerful direct force was what was needed and thus used.

There were casualties though. Even the elite soldiers like what Britain sent weren't supermen and they occasionally made small errors which would cost them too. Going after the Undead as they were in an active hunt reacting to reports in a timely fashion meant that the tactical environments which they fought in were always new and full of unwelcome surprises. Terrain, whether it be out in the desert or the grasslands or small towns, was a major factor in this as there was plenty of concealment that their enemy wasn't purposely using yet was still there. The UKSF soldiers were taken by surprise on countless occasions by lone opponents stumbling into them from unexpected directions and trying to attack them just as they had been doing to the people of Botswana. Moreover, the extremely high tempo of operations being conducted was another factor in the losses being taken.

An SAS soldier with one of the special forces teams – Sierra One Two – suffered a jamming of his weapon right at the wrong moment and one of the Undead he and his comrades were fighting bit him on the hand. Knowing that he was infected and soon to turn into one of the Undead himself, that soldier suddenly killed himself with a pistol he was carrying as well as his jammed M-16 assault rifle. His buddies were immediately distraught at the loss of one of their own, especially in such circumstances where he took his own life, but had no choice but to continue fighting to save themselves.

One of the Eurocopter-built Dauphin helicopters flown by the AAC crashed near the airfield at Molepolole due to a mechanical issue. It and the others there had seen far too much continued use and when it went down a total of five men aboard were badly wounded with another two being killed in that crash. This wasn't a crippling loss in terms of men or aircraft but it was soon a big cost in terms of morale for those on STONEFERRY duty.

Then there was the casualties suffered by the special forces team Sierra One Seven near the town of Kayne. This urban centre lay along the Trans-Kalahari Highway, a major road in Botswana cutting through the centre of the country. One of those South Africa refugees who had been infected with the Solanum virus when entering Botswana and who had soon afterwards unwilling joined the ranks of the Undead had been thought to have been finished off by the UKSF team there after being the one who had infected many residents of the town and causing a mass outbreak. He had been shot twice in the head yet his brain remained 'active' enough to allow him to finally get back up and come at those trying to save the rest of the town. Two members of Sierra One Seven were bitten by him and in a rare moment of panic their comrades started shooting wildly; the SAS here killed one of their own in a friendly fire incident. That pair of British soldiers were extremely distraught at being bitten and thus infected yet both tried to do their duty by allowing their fellow soldiers to disarm them as well as binding their hands with plastic strapping. They would be taken soon enough by helicopter back to Molepolole to an uncertain fate while their deceased colleague went with them too.

Added up, such casualties caused by the full-scale and near ceaseless scale of operations, as well as the rate at which the infections and then the Undead were spreading throughout Botswana, were crippling for the STONEFERRY mission in southern Africa. Three days into active operations, matters were too far progressed for things to be brought back under control. The UKSF troops in the country just couldn't react fast enough and by the time they reacted sites of outbreaks, the Undead were in too many number and those infected were fleeing elsewhere faster than they could be tracked down. Civil disorder was breaking out in places and the BDF – with many soldiers of their own infected with the disease which would turn them into the Undead soon enough – was losing a lot of men in combat as well as to desertion; soldiers were abandoning their comrades to go and be with their families. Gaborone was turning into a huge, fortified military encampment but elsewhere confusion ran wild and so did the Undead. It was known by reconnaissance efforts made by RAF drones that there were more South African refugees crossing the now unguarded border and the scale of problem in Botswana was only going to get much bigger soon enough.

Back at Northwood in the UK, General Price was being forced into making a decision which he wasn't going to like. The first STONEFERRY deployment was being met with failure and withdrawal from Botswana – with all the implications which would follow that – was something that he was going to have to seriously consider recommending to his superiors.

 **STONEFERRY – 6**

The position of Director, Special Forces wasn't a political appointment and General Price shouldn't have had to worry about his future when it came to the whims of politicians. However, he personally made the request that UKSF troops under his command should be withdrawn from their deployment to Botswana after being there less than a week and there was no doubt that that was going to upset a lot of people in positions of power. He felt that he had no choice but to almost demand that the special forces sent there be evacuated from that country as soon as humanly possibly though and was prepared to face the consequences of this.

The first STONEFERRY deployment had gone so terribly wrong very quickly and there was no hope that the situation on the ground was going to get any better; he just couldn't have men under his command there suffering casualties for no gain at all.

General Price went to Whitehall himself to explain himself to those dreaded politicians there. Both the Chief of the General Staff and the Chief of the Defence Staff – respectively the professional heads of the British Army and the entire UK Armed Forces – were with him at that meeting where many senior politicians were present along with the heads of Britain's intelligence services. The threat to the country from the Undead was discussed at great detail with a lot of focus upon the economic damage and the threat to national security which Britain could expect if the worst fears of some were true about the danger posed by those walking cannibalistic corpses. Moreover, during that highly-secretive government meeting which General Price attended there was also mention made of the loss of life of British diplomats, expats and tourists abroad already with the further danger of more deaths taking place as well. For him to then have to go tell them that he wanted to withdraw from the fight against the Undead after the first instances of combat with them was a difficult thing to do.

Yet, General Price did have the backing of those two senior military men with him that morning in London. It was pointed out how fast the Undead as well as those infected with the Solanum virus – now being deemed 'African Rabies' in the American (and thus international) news media – had moved into Botswana and spread out in an uncontrollable fashion too. South Africa appeared at that stage to be on the verge of falling apart itself and the situation inside the country on its border Britain had moved to protect seemed to be going in that direction as well. The UKSF soldiers there in southern Africa were too few in number and in a terrible strategic situation with their necessary allies in the BDF being unable to support them.

Surprisingly, the politicians moved to finally agree with General Price's assessment of the situation… only once it had been all carefully explained to them. They weren't happy at all with the need for a sudden withdrawal and it was believed by those military officers who briefed them that if the deployment had been made public such a sudden retreat wouldn't have happened, yet authorisation was given after much typical political debate because such people weren't fools. The Prime Minister and his Foreign Secretary expressed a great concern about how the Botswana government was going to react though there were others at that meeting – General Price included – who believed that those down in Gaborone had other more pressing matters demanding their immediate attention at that moment than the withdrawal of the near six hundred British soldiers back out of Botswana with even greater haste that they had so recently arrived.

This was a blow for those involved in STONEFERRY with all of the hopes pinned upon the deployment of elite commandoes to attempt to deal with the Undead, of that there could be no doubt. Moreover, the Americans were apparently already claiming success with the first of their MIDNIGHT TALON operations in a similar vein to what General Price had overseen in Botswana.

Botswana had only been the first planned mission though; others had been envisaged and steps had already been taken with regard to getting them underway. The secret mobilisation of much of the UKSF including its reserve elements had been necessary so that very soon when again the special forces soldiers went into action, they would have the manpower available. There had been much practical experience gained in Botswana, even with the mission there being a sudden failure. When the next deployment came there would be more men, more tactical reconnaissance assets available, further stocks of 'special' ammunition to defeat the Undead and, probably of most importance, a far better understanding of how to defeat the threat posed.

The following two deployments were to take place to the desert country of Oman in the Middle East and to the jungles of Brunei in South-East Asia as well where it was anticipated that STONEFERRY operations would meet much greater success.

 **STONEFERRY – 7**

Top-level officials at British Embassies, Consulates and High Commissions around the world had been instructed by the Foreign Office that they were to keep an eye out for 'the unusual' and 'the strange' taking place inside the countries where the UK had diplomatic representation. These vaguely worded official _communiques_ had been delivered across the globe before the outbreak in Cape Town and had been intended to allow Britain to gain an early heads-up on the presence of the Undead before they really made themselves known in locations across the globe which would affect the UK national interest.

While vague as those instructions were, they had been taken notice of at the Consulate-General down in Cape Town when the first of the Undead had made their appearance. In relation to that, Britain had fast been able to launch their initial STONEFERRY deployment as once the Consulate-General there had given further details of what was going on in that city, the Undead were confirmed to be present.

Following on from the failed mission in Botswana, there would be further deployments made under the STONEFERRY banner down to warnings coming from diplomatic posts worldwide. These reports would come back to the UK before the situation could grow and the media became aware, which was just what the British Government wanted.

The Muscat Outbreak took place in the capital of Oman just over a week after UKSF were withdrawn from southern Africa. An Omani diplomat from that Arab country's embassy in Beijing had returned home on a private aircraft after apparently feeling unwell. It wasn't known at first that he had been in contact with one of the Undead in China and suffered a scratch which had broken the skin and allowed his blood to be slowly infected with the Solanum virus. The diplomat and then the Omani's themselves attempted to hide this and deal with the matter themselves, but a private hospital for the elite of Oman was the scene of an outbreak where that first patient and then others turned into the Undead. Omani security forces were quick to react to what they believed was a civil disturbance but found themselves facing something very unexpected indeed.

MI-6 personnel deployed at the Embassy building, located very near the hospital where all of this was going on, became aware of the situation and after contact with London, the Ambassador approached the Sultan of Oman. The Sultan was a ruler with absolute personal power and ruled his desert kingdom with an iron fist where no opposition was allowed. He had initially been under the impression that what was going on at the hospital in question was no more than a medical emergency, but when informed that this was a suspected case of 'African Rabies' he took up the offer of British assistance in dealing with it.

Already on standby, a UKSF team soon left RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. They took a flight aboard a pre-loaded C17 strategic transport aircraft waiting like they were to take a long flight far aboard. During that flight, the seventy men aboard – a sixteen man commando team along with more than fifty support personnel – were briefed upon the situation which they were facing and a few veterans of the combat seen in Botswana who had been hastily attached to this deployment also went through with them what they would be up against. By this point, all soldiers with UKSF had already had extensive intelligence briefings, but those who had yet to see the Undead were always still rather sceptical of their potential opponents.

Such a mind-set that the Undead were the stuff of zombie films was something hard to overcome.

Once on the ground in Oman, the commando team involved – Sierra Two One – went straight to the site of the outbreak inside the capital Muscat and passed through various armed checkpoints manned by members of the Royal Army of Oman. There was a large number of troops present, including some armoured units with British-built Challenger-2 main battle tanks and French-built VAB armoured personnel carriers, forming various perimeters extending into urban areas. Civilians were being rushed from outside the cordoned off zone and the British special forces troops observed the confused fear on the faces of those ordinary Omanis.

Support personnel with the British troops flown in moved at once to assist the local authorities in making sure that none of those being evacuated – civilians, soldiers and those from the hospital – had any sign of infection. There were some problems with this when it came to many people being upset at how roughly handled they were in that checking for bites or scratches, but the importance of doing this was everything. It would be no good at all for someone infected with the Solanum virus to leave the area and spread that elsewhere.

At the hospital itself there was no armed combat which Sierra Two One had been expecting to see. Omani security personnel which had first arrived had all been pulled back or lay dead within the hospital grounds after either being shot or torn alive by the cannibals which now roamed around the general area. This was therefore a much easier tactical environment for the UKSF soldiers to operate in as they had little worries over friendly fire. So many lessons had been learnt down in Botswana which were now to be put to use here in Muscat.

A free-fire zone was what the hospital was. The special forces went into the main and a-joining buildings along with the grounds with the orders to at once kill all those they found there unless it was very clear that anyone found was uninfected. This had been something which had caused problems back home in Britain when those UKSF soldiers were told that they would be operating under such ROE, but those who weren't prepared for that weren't taking place in STONEFERRY missions.

To shoot at those they found with the expanding and also explosive-tipped bullets carried in their rifles was something which those men of Sierra Two One did. They found that the Undead flocked to them by the sounds of movement and also by shots fired too. Carefully-aimed shots were taken at the heads of those Undead found while there was also the shooting of those who had been mauled by the Undead but whom were still alive. Everything was done with great haste as the special forces tore through rooms and corridors killing everyone in their path. There would certainly be ramifications to this later with psychological problems which would come about, but for now the commandoes here did as they were instructed.

Bodies piled up and the Undead, along with all of those infected with Solanum, were ruthlessly slaughtered at this hospital. The Muscat Outbreak was put to an end.

 **STONEFERRY – 8**

It was nearly three weeks before another STONEFERRY missions took place. During that time UKSF almost went abroad on emergency deployments several times when reports came of the Undead making appearances in number across Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Relations between those governments and London weren't close at all and the bad experiences of Botswana greatly influenced the decision not to send British troops back there. Behind those countries through where the Undead were moving deeper into Africa, there had come word that there was some sort of plan underway down in South Africa to stop that country falling apart; only much later would Britain hear what the 'Redeker Plan' entailed.

Preparations were started to make a deployment to Nepal when the Undead appeared in that country which was located between China and India, but before the first aircraft could start flying out there further intelligence came of the number of the Undead already present. Nepal was falling apart and refugees from there pouring down from the Himalayas into India.

The British Government was working with the Americans in trying to keep track of the movement of the Undead worldwide and this was one hell of a challenge. There were many nations now joining this global effort and not all of those were traditional allies of the West; the Undead didn't care for old alliances though, just the flesh of the living. At the same time, Britain and those other nations involved were all attempting to keep their general populations from understanding the true threat which was posed. The world economy had already been ruined by events concerning the Undead in China – first believed to be the threat of a war between that nation and semi-independent Taiwan – but the wholescale collapse of civil order was feared should it be widely understood how seemingly unstoppable the Undead were and that there was no cure for the Solanum virus.

There was an international conspiracy at work, even if it wasn't an overt one with clearly defined nefarious aims.

An aspect of nations in the know working together to keep the truth hidden so they could try to stop the Undead without their populations knowing pushed British attention towards South East Asia.

At first there was the report from Hong Kong delivered to the UK Government from the CIA that a pair of freelance investigative journalists recently let go from a major British national newspaper had arrived in that former Crown Colony. Those reporters had been busy talking with people from mainland China who had escaped the clutches of the Undead there and were hoping to go public with what they had found out. The CIA was greatly interested in such knowledge themselves, especially as the journalist concerned appeared to have uncovered some fantastic information, but of course the line taken was that any such information wasn't going to be for public consumption back in the West. Britain had joined the United States in working together in the intelligence sphere when it came to the Undead – all supposed to be entirely separate from the military STONEFERRY operations – and so set about planning to assist in such an effort to find out what those reporters had and then make sure they didn't go public, but events were moving fast on the ground there in Hong Kong: the Undead had arrived in the Special Administrative Region.

They had apparently been active inside Hong Kong for more than three days before intelligence services of the West became aware of that. It was known from previous experience – with the British in Botswana and the Americans on their MIDNIGHT TALON missions – that once the Undead were in a highly-populated area (which Hong Kong certainly was) that area would have to be written off as beyond hope. Civilian panic and internal refugees would very rapidly cause all efforts to combat the Undead to fail in a spectacular fashion. Furthermore, and of greater significance, with how the Chinese had been behaving when it came to their level of secrecy around the Undead – something which would put efforts made by the West to shame – there was no viable manner in which Hong Kong could be a scene of any action by troops assigned to STONEFERRY or its American counterpart of even a clandestine intelligence mission.

From Hong Kong had escaped a small ship which British intelligence became aware of as it headed into the South China Sea. This vessel had got away from there about the same time that the Undead arrived and managed to evade patrols from the People Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)… a fantastic name for a navy. Interest was sparked at first as whether there was a possibility that on such a ship there might be those two British journalists but then that waned as that was considered to be nearly impossible.

There were many other ships at sea and the PLAN had been sinking many of them with guns, missiles, torpedoes and even aircraft as they stopped their fellow countrymen from fleeing China, but this one ship had got away. The Americans were active in South East Asia with their special forces missions to combat the Undead, especially in Thailand and later in Singapore and so they did monitor that vessel for some time with all of their capable military reconnaissance assets. Yet there was a need for such attention to be focused elsewhere and that lone vessel heading in the direction towards eastern parts of Malaysia, maybe Indonesia, was ignored.

Brunei, a Commonwealth nation with many security ties to the UK, was made aware of such a vessel which was heading in their direction if it wasn't going to Malaysia or Indonesia and informed with selective intelligence about the Undead by MI-6 officers close to the Sultan's most trusted advisers. The Royal Brunei Navy (RBN) was instructed to try to locate that ship and make sure that it didn't arrive in Brunei waters. Details of the potential of the cargo, which was in no way confirmed, weren't passed on to the RBN, just orders to sink the vessel on sight and not to rescue any survivors which might emerge from such an engagement.

Unfortunately, even with the aid of the advanced technology which the RBN was able to afford due to the wealth of the small country, they were unable to detect that ship when it was at sea. Corvettes and offshore patrol vessels with their surface-search radars and then aircraft too with their own downwards-looking radars as well couldn't detect the ship which had made the journey from Hong Kong. The hope was that it had been missed because it had come nowhere near the country… but then after a few days there started to come some reports of very alarming behaviour from the country's easternmost Temburong District.

A trio of overworked but available RAF C17 transports were soon to leave Britain heading for South East Asia to give assistance to Brunei and those aircraft would be laden with troops and equipment for another STONEFERRY mission.

 **STONEFERRY – 9**

The operational procedures for STONEFERRY called for the rapid deployment of UKSF soldiers across the globe yet Brunei was very far indeed from Britain. There were commandoes on stand-by alert along with aircraft pre-loaded with everything that they would need for their missions against the Undead. Nevertheless, there was always going to be a delay in getting going and then making extremely long journeys by air over great distances: that just couldn't be helped.

As those British soldiers were flying halfway across the world and rushing towards Brunei, there was already armed combat inside the country preceeding them. The country had not been part of the unofficial coalition of nations already actively opposing the Undead beforehand yet events in South Africa – where there had been much initial media coverage played out internationally – and also a lot of rumour and speculation coming from what was going on in China meant that the Sultan had his military forces ready to act.

The only problem was that they were first fighting against what was believed to be a conventional military threat, not something so new and extraordinary.

Brunei was located on the island of Borneo with Indonesia making up the majority of the land in the south and the centre with Malaysia having a large territorial share in the north; Brunei was a small country also in the north on the coastline of the South China Sea. Part of Malaysian sovereign territory encroached upon the coastline between the eastern and western portions of Brunei and so the latter country was split into two separate geographical parts.

It was to the east, in the Temburong District where the population was miniscule compared to that which it was in the west where that ship which had come from Hong Kong (the MV _Pearl_ ) had landed. Brunei aircraft found it anchored along the coastline and wrecked there due to causes unknown. There were no anchorages, ports or villages along that stretch of coastline and what population centres in existence were inland.

The military encampment of Bangar Camp was from where the first of the strangely troubling reports had come of what had been described as 'homicidal cannibals' who kept on 'attacking despite deadly force being used'. Such phrases set off the alarm bells that the Undead had made an appearance. Bangar Camp was pretty far inland though and they had reached there very quickly indeed – after presumably coming from the _Pearl_ – before the Brunei authorities became aware of them. By that point, the military garrison at Bangar Camp had been engaging the Undead attacking them and requesting urgent assistance to support them. Other troops from military bases across in the west were dispatched to the east to assist.

Contact was made with the Brunei military by General Price himself when it came to the Undead and there were efforts made to brief them so they could understand just what their men on the ground would be facing. Moreover, the Director, Special Forces tried to make those in Brunei understand that the Undead were one threat but so too were those who had survived an attack by them and managed to get away alive. This was something repeated several times yet there had been a fear that with everything else going on in their haste to save their fellow soldiers at that under siege military base in the eastern part of their country that Brunei's military wasn't grasping the danger of the second, less-identifiable threat.

Britain maintained a military base in Brunei, one of the very few permanent military stations for the UK Armed Forces overseas. This was located in the west along the coast near the oil and gas facilities at Seria. The garrison there was home to Gurkha's and the Jungle Warfare Training School: Brunei and the establishment at Seria was regarded as a part of the UK's military strategic interests. However, there was no airport at Seria nor a facility big enough anywhere close enough to take the C17 transports flying from the UK. Only at the international airport serving the capital city Bandar Seri Begawan was capable of handling such huge aircraft.

Therefore, while it would have been more suitable for the UKSF deployment to go through the secure facilities at Seria, it was through that big civilian airport where the airhead was to be established for the third STONEFERRY deployment. Bandar Seri Begawan was closer to the site of the outbreak, but near a heavily-populated area too. Nothing could be done about this; it was just how matters turned out even if those wished that they could have a more isolated spot to operate from.

When the first wave of C17 aircraft wearing RAF colours arrived in Brunei, the big jets were moved to a cordoned off part of the airport and the men and equipment aboard were fast unloaded. Gurkha's from Seria were present along with security forces from Brunei to ensure a smooth operation though there was a great deal of secrecy involved where those already in-country had no idea what was going on with this sudden arrival. There were combat troops, support personnel, weapons, communications equipment, stores and a pair of helicopters which came out of those C17's. This was the advance wave of a planned bigger deployment though the scale of that would depend upon the circumstances of the situation on the ground out to the east.

Now that the first soldiers trained in engaging the Undead – many of them already veterans of such combat – were in-country, they set about fast getting ready to move out to where the reports of the fighting had come from. Everything was happening in a rush and there were worries over the intelligence picture, but it was thought best to get into action as soon as possible and build from there.

UKSF were again going to go up against the Undead and hopefully eliminate them before they did their worst.

 **STONEFERRY – 10**

The vast majority of the UKSF had spent some time on exercise in Brunei before they returned there as part of their emergency STONEFERRY deployment. The training facility was jungle warfare in-country was put to use quite often for special forces training; many British elite commandoes had much experience inside Brunei and they also had some basic language skills too which would help them. The easternmost portion of Brunei was somewhere that exercises in peacetime were conducted and the conditions which would be faced were therefore something not too daunting for those involved. It was only the Undead which were something new and difficult to deal with.

Hunting the Undead was rather easy; they left a trail of bloody devastation in their wake which was easy for those experienced in tracking like many in the UKSF were. To find them all that needed to be followed was the blood shed everywhere and the rather sickening 'waste products' expelled by the bodies of the Undead in an uncontrollable fashion. Their smell and the eerie moans – often known to make the hairs on the back of the neck for their hunters stand up – were further clues as to where they could be located. When in Botswana rather than combatting the very limited outbreak in Oman, their British hunters had quickly learnt how there was no great effort to expend in such a search and it was just the same here in Brunei.

The Undead where known to be active around the town of Bangar and there were many of them which the Brunei military was struggling to combat as those soldiers found their garrison under constant attack. The numbers present there were rather alarming when determined as it was realised that there had been quite a number of them aboard the ship _Pearl_ which had run aground along the coast after coming from Hong Kong and such a number had fast managed to infect citizens of Brunei too. Though they were struggling, the Brunei soldiers at their garrison were holding back the Undead from managing to overrun them and kept pushing them back into the jungle. It was not thought the best course of action for the British soldiers arriving in eastern Brunei to join their allies in that fixed location as the strategic aim of the mission was to fast eliminate the threat rather than slowly try to overcome it. Therefore, as in Botswana, though this time with greater success, those UKSF commandoes went on active hunts through the jungle.

Using the pair of light Gazelle AH1 helicopters flown from Britain as part of the first wave though heavily relying upon the airlift available from American-built S-70A Blackhawk's in the service of Brunei, British troops moved into eastern Brunei on the hunt for the Undead.

As anticipated, very quickly the Undead were located. Villages along the route of the main road running through Bangar either side of that town and nearby along rivers were scenes of bloody chaos where the Undead had been feasting upon the living in horrible scenes where human life had been brutally crushed. In addition, confirming what Britain had been told by the Americans by what some of their own special forces teams had found elsewhere, the Undead had attacked animals too and there was plenty of evidence of this too… thankfully, there was no evidence anywhere that non-humans could become infected like the Undead were with Solanum.

British commandoes started to take long-range shots against the Undead with their sniper rifles in careful shots to put an end to their feasts. They used silenced weapons to not attract unwanted attention to themselves and their small numbers and watched as their targeted opponents fell down and didn't get back up again. The use of expanding ammunition went alongside explosive-tipped bullets. The heads of the Undead were blown apart by the impact and subsequent reactions of such bullets fired from high-powered weapons.

STONEFERRY missions demanded that the troops involved keep moving. They had no desire to be caught up by large numbers of the Undead even though they had the short-range capabilities to take on such opponents. The Undead were attracted by noise – amongst everything else from sight and smell too – and there was always the danger that ever growing numbers would keep approaching the positions of the UKSF soldiers should they stay still. Again and again the deployed teams remained on the move travelling by foot through the jungle following the footsteps of the Undead and eliminating them.

The Undead were an opponent that were one thing to deal with as they were walking corpses and troops engaged them without hesitation. Yet, at the same time, as had been the case in Botswana and Oman, there were the living too be dealt with too: those clearly infected after being attacked and then those who showed no outward sign of being bitten or scratched but after a forced examination showed evidence of that. People who had had contact with the Undead and had managed to get away showed remarkable cunning in trying to disguise the fact that they had been infected for themselves and their loved ones. Regardless of who they were – men, women or children – the UKSF were under orders to shot them dead just like they did with the Undead.

There was no other choice in this.

Realistically, it was murder to kill those who had been infected yet there was nothing else to be done. Firm orders had come on that to the troops involved and they were made to understand that mercy couldn't be shown in such instances for the infection was incurable (based on all available evidence) and very soon those infected would join the ranks of the Undead. They had to be shot so that their brain was destroyed and they could not rise back up again afterwards and attack others. Of course it was a horrible thing for those involved to have to do yet their orders were inflexible on such matters and had been given to them back in the UK rather than on the battlefield.

Nothing else could be done.

The first couple of deployed Troop's on patrol were soon joined by other sixteen man teams. The men who made up these small teams were all highly-skilled and well-trained elite soldiers. They were cross-trained in a wide number of roles and were used to facing adversity. Nonetheless, it was still hard going for them fighting in the heat and humidity in Brunei. Away from the threat of the Undead, the jungle posed other risks from snakes, insects and even leopards and bears. Many of the latter had been attacked by the Undead and those survivors of such attempts to eat them were very aggressive when faced with further humans now in the jungle with them. Such an environment was rather unfriendly, yet the British soldiers had all been vaccinated against tropical diseases and knew how to keep their cool when faced with animals acting in a very unfriendly manner.

As they hunted for the Undead they were supported from above with helicopters on call for assistance. Supply drops were made of food, ammunition and the occasional need for medical evacuation when serious non-combat injuries unfortunately occurred as they did a couple of times. When the trail of the Undead ran cold, further UKSF acting as spotters up above were on-hand to keep a look out of the hunted opponents and there was also the availability of fast transport to catch up with the Undead. As terribly destructive and extremely deadly as the Undead were, they were thoroughly outclassed on this battlefield against such hunters determined to eliminate them and using all available assets.

The STONEFERRY mission in eastern Brunei would continue for five days with reinforcements arriving for the British while the numbers of Undead engaged fell drastically.

 **STONEFERRY – 11**

The deployment to Brunei would be judged to be a success based upon immediate results gained from the mission results.

Those UKSF soldiers which were rushed there did what they were tasked to do and eliminated every single member of the Undead which they encountered along with plenty of infected civilians. Their own casualties, like in Oman, were zero despite many close calls and they had effectively hunted down their opponents through the jungle. Brunei military units had been fast to learn from their earlier errors in trying to combat the Undead and soon moved to ably support the British troops which had arrived to join them.

The town of Bangar was cleared of the enemy and so were neighbouring villages in all directions. Most of the jungle was swept and there maintained heavy patrolling afterwards even when it was apparently that the Undead were finished off just in case there had been one or two that had slipped past the massive hunt for them. Local civilians who had survived the Undead and then the activities of the soldiers killing those infected with Solanum were transported out of eastern Brunei away to the west via air and sea so that should there be another outbreak it would be very small indeed.

After the Undead had been killed, there remained plenty of bodies. There were the Undead themselves with their heads blasted apart, infected others who had been for a lack of a better word executed and there was also in many places the partially-eaten remains of victims of the Undead. All of these corpses wouldn't be allowed to rot out in the open as they were and had to be gathered up carefully and disposed of. Pyres for those bodies were soon lit in countless places as this was believed to be the best way of disposing of them rather than trying to bury such people. Religious beliefs and local customs had to be overlooked in this haste to get rid of such a large number of bodies.

That ship which had brought the Undead to Brunei from Hong Kong remained beached while the hunt had been going on through the jungle for the Undead but after that threat had been taken care of, a move was made against the _Pearl_.

A big ship which displaced twelve thousand tons, the _Pearl_ was a general cargo vessel classed as a merchantman. It was registered in the Marshall Islands – a flag of convenience – but owned by a Shanghai-based corporation; it usually plied its trade between ports along the Chinese coast with a crew from China and other East Asian countries. When it had left Hong Kong exactly, who precisely had been aboard and why it had sailed down to Brunei were all unknown factors. There would have to have been many Undead aboard for the scale of the outbreak to have occurred in Brunei as it was but how it had happened with them being taken across the South China Sea as they had done was another unknown. What mattered, what was important, was that the vessel was still beached on the shoreline.

The possibility of further outbreaks occurring due to that ship being there couldn't be discounted. Brunei wanted the vessel attacked and blown to pieces, preferably with specialist weapons like napalm or even thermobaric explosives to destroy it and anyone remaining aboard. The British were asked to do this but there were no UK military assets capable of that in the region. Brunei considered asking the Americans who had their aircraft carrier USS _Ronald Reagan_ in the South China Sea supporting their MIDNIGHT TALON operations against the Undead, but were talked out of that after it was made clear that there was a wish for a STONEFERRY-related mission to go aboard the _Pearl_ with (heavily-armed) UKSF soldiers to take a look inside. The Undead were still something which defied explanation and it was thought that maybe some clues about how to combat them even more efficiently might be gained.

Therefore, a scaled-down Troop was ordered to board that vessel and find out all that they could. The men assigned travelled out to the _Pearl_ expecting that they would see combat aboard in an unfriendly environment… and they weren't about to be proved wrong there.

 **STONEFERRY – 12**

The _Pearl_ had been observed from a distance by various means from the air and by sea beforehand but not up close until the UKSF team tasked to investigate it arrived.

They came by two helicopters; a Dauphin flown by an Army Air Corps crew and a Blackhawk in Royal Brunei Air Force colours but with a mixed aircrew from Brunei and Britain (the latter as part of the UK-Brunei strategic relationship). The noise of the helicopters was guaranteed to alert any of the Undead present to their arrival and so too was the use of spotlights purposely fitted for this early morning flight too… which was just what was wanted. The Undead reacted to such sensory perceptions and there would only be danger in hiding the approach of the British soldiers coming.

There was no helicopter deck on the ship but a long empty main deck instead. After circling around and hovering close by for a while, ropes were dropped from the helicopters and the UKSF commandoes abseiled the short distance down onto that deck. The Dauphin and the Blackhawk quickly took up station nearby ready to mount a rescue mission should the worst happen.

Beached at a troubling thirty degree angle to starboard, it was a miracle that the _Pearl_ had not yet tipped over. The mud-bank which it had crashed into along the coast was keeping the vessel upright though yet when the UKSF soldiers arrived on the ship's deck they all collectively felt a fear that at any moment the vessel could roll over onto its side.

With their weapons at the ready, the soldiers clad in their bio-hazard equipment moved to secure their landing site and check access points to the hull of the ship. There were several hatches leading down to the hold which were open and so too were watertight doors left open connecting to the superstructure towards the front of the vessel. With so many points when the Undead were feared to at any moment emerge from, the British troops closed several of these to negate that threat. They shone flashlights into other openings left open and under orders from their officer in-charge and couple of them let out wolf-whistles into the dark interior of the ship.

There quickly came back the sound of that always spine-tingling moan that the Undead made.

No one wanted to go inside but the mission orders were for them to do so. They donned their night vision goggles, re-checked their weapons and then entered the darkness inside the _Pearl_ 's superstructure.

The compartments in the superstructure were checked first. The UKSF at all times covered every angle with weapons pointed outwards as they moved through each and every compartment they found. They moved across each deck then upwards in the general direction of the bridge. Many compartments were empty but inside others there were human remains and a lot of blood. The Undead clearly had been at work here but of them there was no sign apart from the echoes of a moan coming from what was thought to be just one but maybe more of them somewhere else aboard.

Upon reaching the bridge, further human remains were found. These had been partially eaten and weren't a pleasant sight. There were a few weapons found – a pistol and three rather sharp knives – along with signs of a huge struggle. One of the soldiers quickly went to work on the ship's navigation computer and plugged in a USB stick with remote data transfer: everything in the computer's memory was fast uploaded and then shared back to a technician who had remained aboard that Blackhawk nearby. It was clear that the ship had come direct from Hong Kong to Brunei but with a course set for Bandar Siri Begawan rather than eastern Brunei where it ended up. The _Pearl_ had avoided the known shipping routes and moved at near full-speed.

With the superstructure clear of active signs of the Undead, the UKSF now had to go below decks.

There was no power aboard and everywhere was dark. Open doors up above had brought rain down into the ship and without anyone manning the vessel the pumps which kept out the leaks hadn't been working for a while now. Therefore the British troops moving down passageways and entering further compartments found themselves walking through water at first a few inches deep but then getting higher at all times. Again, just as up in the superstructure, they went through compartments slowly and carefully as they cleared them. Most were empty though in some they found evidence of the Undead. In addition, inside one internal compartment they found a Caucasian male who had secured himself inside – the door had to be broken down and that wasn't easy – and then hung himself; his wallet was located and he was a British citizen, a journalist too. He showed no sign of being infected with Solanum yet he was missing his left hand and forearm. A check by medically-trained soldiers led to the belief that such a missing limb had been severed with a blow by a sharp implement and then the wound closed with fire. Such a violent action didn't appeared to have occurred inside the compartment where the man was found as there was no sign of that.

Meanwhile, as the soldiers found this sight and others, that moaning continued.

There was evidence aboard that impromptu barricades had been constructed by then pushed aside along several internal passageways. The crew quarters appeared to have been somewhere that was protected for a while against the Undead before such barricades made from smashed wooden furniture, folding aluminium chairs and even plastic sheeting had been forced down.

The first of the Undead was encountered at one of these barricades. He was a middle-aged man of Asian appearance dressed in a torn business suit and wearing just one shoe. He was dead with a bullet hole right in his forehead through there was undigested torn flesh (not thought to be his) caught in his teeth and mouth. A bite mark was found on his right inner tight where his trousers had been ripped but the rest of him – apart from that bullet wound – was intact. The Undead ate the living yet they were not known to consume one another even after final death.

There was still that moaning from elsewhere.

Access to the hold was blocked at several points with chains securing the closed watertight doors. The moaning was determined to be coming from inside there yet access was delayed due to the detecting of seawater ever-so slowly seeping out. There was clearly a hole made in the external hull of the ship where it had beached and the SBS commando with this British special forces team told his comrades that he thought there would be an onrush of water should those access points be opened from down below.

Back up to the main deck the soldiers then went, moving carefully as they went less they had missed any of the Undead. Once there they opened up several of the hatches leading down to the hold and shone their flashlight in there.

One of the Undead was down at the bottom of the hold, just as feared. It was an Asian woman who appeared to have no clothes on and seemed to be secured at the wrists to an internal support beam. She was partially immersed in water yet a black substance thought to be that 'blood' that the Undead emitted was forming around her. She struggled against her unseen bonds in what was clearly a desperate attempt to get at the soldiers above her looking down.

There was no way that the UKSF commandoes were going down there: their commanding officer made it clear that in that dark water there could be more of the Undead trapped where they couldn't see and ready to strike. Orders came for the woman to be finished off and then a single well-aimed shot blew apart most of her head. Silence came afterwards as the moaning was finally stopped.

With the search-and-destroy part of the mission over with, the soldiers went back to the compartment where the hanging man was. They cut him down after he was shot in the head too – just to be _sure_ – and then a search was made of that compartment for anything else that he might have had with him apart from his wallet.

Such an order had come on from high with the MI-6 personnel back at Bandar Siri Begawan deploying as part of this STONEFERRY deployment asking for any documents found to be recovered, but there was nothing like that. The man's smartphone was recovered though and there appeared to be many files stored inside with videos, photographs and copied documents. Maybe the spooks could find that of some use…

A second Dauphin soon appeared nearby and the soldiers aboard the _Pearl_ assisted in handling the cargo from that helicopter carefully lowered to them. Several of them were trained in the handling of 'special weapons' and they got to work in supervising the movement of the bombs delivered by air. These were taken down deep into the ship and then armed.

It was time to go afterwards with the UKSF soldiers climbing back up ropes to their helicopters with haste but still with care. There was a countdown underway and everyone needed to be clear.

Six minutes after the soldiers had departed, several blasts deep within the _Pearl_ occurred. These were small but immensely powerful thermobaric bombs that quickly spread fire throughout the ship after holes had been blown further along the starboard side.

A pair of Brunei patrol boats nearby watched over the destruction of the bigger ship after the helicopters were gone and multiple lookouts were posted to keep a visual watch on the water in case there were any of the Undead in the water floating away afterwards; none were observed.

Everything pointed to the complete scouring of Brunei of the Undead finally being achieved afterwards.

 **STONEFERRY – 13**

Not all of those UKSF assets tasked to deploy to Brunei ended up making that trip. Events moved quickly on the ground there with the British soldiers sent there as part of the third STONEFERRY mission being quickly able to hunt down and kill all of their opponents through the jungles of eastern Brunei. There were worries from some quarters that the Undead might have penetrated deep into the jungle and he heading for the heart of Borneo but there was no evidence to back that up.

Later assets who didn't fly to Brunei ended up going to Sri Lanka first and engaged the Undead around Bandaranaike International Airport north of Colombo. A flight from northern India carrying those infected with the Solanum virus had landed there and been quarantined by the Sri Lankan authorities when they hadn't really understood the danger of such people. By the time British diplomats from the High Commission in Colombo had managed to make the Sri Lanka President aware of the danger and start the process of moving assistance, the Undead were doing their worst there. Bandaranaike was more than twenty miles away from the densely-populated Colombo and so even after the Undead had overrun that area, there was still an opportunity for the arriving UKSF soldiers to take them on before they reached that city. The haste of the deployment and then 'difficulties' on the ground – with the rank and file of the Sri Lankan military forces being kept in the dark by their government – meant that there were casualties with this STONEFERRY deployment: three deaths were recorded among the over-worked British special forces.

In the end, Sri Lanka was saved _for the time being_ from the Undead… yet with the spread of them throughout the Indian sub-continent ongoing that was never going to realistically last.

STONEFERRY deployments continued across the wider region during the next few months with varying degrees of success though there were no instances where the British special forces deployed suffered major reverses. General Price remained in-charge of where they would be sent and he and other senior military men back in the UK managed to talk the politicians out of many deployments deemed very risky indeed.

A mission was undertaken on Phuket Island off the coast of Thailand when that resort island saw the arrival of the Undead there. There were British expats there along with a few foolish tourists who had ignored all travel advice to not go to Asia with the Undead crisis what it was. The Thai authorities had been working with the Americans in learning how to combat the Undead and they dealt with the main threat from that enemy leaving the deploying UKSF soldiers to instead focus upon making sure that the island was evacuated of anyone with connections to Britain. Nonetheless, some action was seen with some Undead countered and then also a tourist managing to film the execution of some Thai civilians infected with Solanum. That footage of Thai soldiers doing that necessary if unpleasant task never made it onto television screens back in the UK though it was uploaded onto the internet and shared worldwide.

Just as the Americans assisted the Thai's, Britain worked with Australia to train some of their elite soldiers for counter-Undead missions as there was a fear that more and more from China were going to spread southwards through South East Asia. Australian special forces troops therefore took the lead in a mission to East Timor to fight the Undead with British commandoes attached under a STONEFERRY mission, but by the time those Australian soldiers were again back in action – across in Papua New Guinea – they were on their own. Only _much_ later would the Australian government realise the threat that they were facing from the Undead present all across Indonesia though by that point they would be on their own.

African Rabies (as it was still be called in public) spread across the continent after which it was named quicker than it moved through Asia. There was a great reluctance to return to Africa after the initial problems faced by UKSF soldiers in Botswana but assistance was given to Kenya in dealing with the aftereffects of an outbreak in coastal Mombasa which they had put down. Afterwards, British troops joined the hunt for what was thought to be just a few Undead who might have escaped the initial fighting along the coast and escaped into the interior. As feared, this didn't go as planned for the initial theory that the Undead had arrived by sea was proved wrong; they had come overland as half of Africa was now home of them. A hasty evacuation of troops on this STONEFERRY mission had to commence but one team was unable to escape and surrounded by the Undead. Watching live footage from the camera feed of an RAF drone above, those back in London were able to witness that even with powerful weaponry and superior training, if the tactical situation was wrong than a horde of the Undead could overwhelm elite British soldiers sent against them.

An entire Troop of sixteen UKSF men were torn apart and killed in a bloody last stand along the main highway between Mombasa and the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The cold season of winter arrived across these parts of Asia and Africa afterwards and therefore throughout the parts of the Southern Hemisphere affected by the cold weather the Undead suffered away from the guns of British, American and other allied elite soldiers sent to hunt them down. Their numbers dwindled and it was believed in many quarters that the threat from them while remaining was nowhere near as bad as the first of those warnings from those predicting the end of mankind. It was thought that they could be stopped.

This opinion ignored all the evidence contrary to that and was rather foolish. When the warmer weather came and events moved as they did elsewhere, the Great Panic could come and mankind would face the threat to its existence warned of beforehand. UKSF soldiers would be committed to action again, though this time _much_ closer to home.

 **THE END**


End file.
